Under construction in Virginia, this floating city is more powerful than any carrier that has come before.

Inside the USS Ford, America's Newest Aircraft Carrier

Inside the USS Ford, America's Newest Aircraft Carrier

Newport News, Va.—U.S. Navy Capt. John Meier wants the USS Ford, the first of the United States' new class of aircraft carrier, to be completed by March 2016. Later that year his term as the ship's commanding officer will end, and his replacement will be the first to take the vessel (CVN-78) out on the water under its own power. "So I have a vested interest in keeping the ship on schedule, and not only for the Navy and the nation's sake," he says.

A trip to the Newport News Shipbuilding, where the Ford is being constructed, makes it clear that aircraft carriers are not delivered, gift wrapped, to the Navy. They are built one compartment at a time. There are 2500 compartments in the USS Ford. Right now the Navy "owns" about 10 percent of them. There are about 800 Navy personnel working here already. The 3D blueprint used to convert sheets of steel into a vessel is now creating a floating warship.

Shipyard officials and Navy officers recently gave PopMech an exclusive walk through the Ford. Wandering around the ship overwhelms the senses, with workers hammering, painting, wiring, and welding at every turn. Touring the ship is also a workout. You're ducking dangling power cords, stepping over thick air hoses, sliding past workers hauling all manner of gear, and climbing metal ladders wrapped with grip tape.

The Ford is the first of its class—and the first new carrier designed from scratch since the 1960s. It's a $14 billion nuclear-powered city, home to more than 4000 sailors and naval airmen. The ship will operate with 800 fewer crewmen than current carriers, thanks to an emphasis on a more sensible design and automation. This ethos is evident in the layout and the opened guts of the unfinished ship.

Wires

Wires

Eleven million feet of cable wiring travel up and down the Ford. That's a little more than 2000 miles.

Electricity is key to the Ford, and the smaller A1B nuclear reactor it carries generates 70 percent more power than previous carriers. It will need the extra juice: The new radar systems, elevators, and electric airplane catapult system will demand a lot of power. The steam pipes that stretched through modern carriers will be replaced, and shipbuilders hope the pipes' frequent maintenance issues will go with them.

George Niefler, the Ford's electrical superintendent, says that the new diagnostics and data readouts will identify problems in ways unheard of in earlier carriers. For example, it once took him three months to fix a bad relay on board the aircraft carrier USS Bush, but the Ford's system immediately displayed the same problem on a computer screen on the Ford.